The greatest Grateful Dead album
the Grateful Dead never made.

 "The Persuasions wanted a do-over, and here it is.  New tracks, changed tracks, an altogether new version of one of the more remarkable musical encounters of the recent past –- the inspired masters of blues/gospel-based a cappella singing address the music of the Grateful Dead."
                                 ---Dennis McNally, official biographer of the Grateful Dead.

    
              From left: Jayotis Washington,   Raymond Sanders, Joe Russell, Jerry Lawson, Jimmy Hayes.
                                                                                                                                    photo by Susana Millman
    The Persuasions, enduring giants of Brooklyn streetcorner a cappella.

         The Grateful Dead, enduring giants of San Francisco ‘60’s psychedelia.

            Together?

            Dead right, says official Grateful Dead biographer Dennis McNally:

          "Given the Dead’s mixed reputation as vocalists, this might seem a little….odd.  But what the Persuasions did,” said McNally, author of Long Strange Trip: the Inside History of the Grateful Dead, “was hear the incredible strength of the great songwriting and melodies at the root of the Dead’s music and transport them into their own world, the world of the voice.  Or rather voices.  And the result is a sweet, magical transformation.”

            It’s also a surprisingly natural fit. Both groups are legendarily eclectic in repertory. The Persuasions’ 40 years of recording covers everyone from Sam Cooke to Frank Zappa to Kurt Weill to the Oak Ridge Boys to The (gasp) Partridge Family. The Grateful Dead’s influences are encyclopedic.

So the roots and influences to be found on Persuasions of the Dead are truly sweeping: Appalachian folk, blues, bluegrass, R&B, “old timey,” jazz, gospel, streetcorner, African-American call-and-answer, country, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, hamboning, even avant-garde, musique concrete, and yes, Chinese folk melody.

            Really. It’s all there---united by the soulful, vivacious, unpretentious singing of the fabulous Persuasions: Jerry Lawson, Jimmy Hayes, “Sweet Joe” Russell, Jayotis Washington, and Raymond Sanders.

Lead singer Jerry Lawson agreed to reunite with his old colleagues for “Stella Blue.” This recording marks the very last time the original Persuasions sang together on record.

           But back to “Long, Strange Trip.” This album was twelve years in the making. It began as project originator Rip Rense’s follow-up to his previous project for The Persuasions: their critically hailed tribute to Frank Zappa (who first signed them to a record deal), Frankly A Cappella. Rense, who partnered with lead singer/arranger Lawson to guide the group’s recording career through their award-winning children's album, On the Good Ship Lollipop, through Frankly. . .  and The Persuasions Live at McCabe's, was sure the Persuasions’ vocal wonderment could uniquely translate the Dead’s songbook for Deadheads and non-Deadheads alike.

            “The Grateful Dead repertory, especially the collaborations of Hunter-Garcia, is a great American songbook of myth and melody,” said Rense. “But the Dead’s reputation as ‘hippie-dippie,’ perpetuated by the mainstream media, often kept people from appreciating this. I thought The Persuasions might reveal the intrinsic greatness and fun of these songs. Fortunately, they agreed.”

One More Saturday Night: On stage with Bob Weir and RatDog. Sanders, Hayes, Weir.                                                                                                       photo by Valerie Ramos Ford

             The basic sessions for most of the tracks originally took place in 1999. Lawson was to produce, and Rense invited David "Grateful Dead Hour" Gans to "help the guys out if they need help finding a weird chord." Lawson's adaptations were typically brilliant. Rense's plans to have a few guest artists do solos turned out well, thanks to Gans (who wound up co-producing with Lawson) inviting Peter Rowan, Pete Grant, Eric Thompson, Vince Welnick, and others. Might as Well (Arista, out of print since 2002), was an endearing document of the sessions, but Rense thought it could have been more. Three years ago, he approached Lawson, who had left the group in 2003, and his ex-colleagues about re-producing---re-imagining---the whole thing.

            “I thought it would benefit greatly from more production, more concept, tweaking, editing, rearranging, overdubs, new lead vocals, new songs, more guest artists, overall reconfiguring,” said Rense. “So I went to the guys and basically said, let’s reinvent this thing.”

"You’ve got to admire the sheer audacity and musical fearlessness of both The Persuasions and the producer Rip Rense to create this project."                                                 ---Jochen Becker, head of ZOHO music.

            The Persuasions were dead-set. . .for it.

            Now, expanded to two CDs, with six new tracks, six new guest artists, the sessions have indeed been re-produced, rearranged, remixed, remastered, and as planned, re-imagined, entirely from scratch. Almost every single vocal and instrumental track from every song has been re-auditioned and remixed. There are a few new lead vocals, many tweaked arrangements, added percussion, and an overall overhaul.  Persuasions of the Dead also follows the pattern of a Grateful Dead concert, with “first set” (CD 1) of straight-ahead performances, and “second set” (CD 2) of more stretched-out takes, with segues, reprises, surprises. . .

            There are even Persuasions versions of the Dead concert staples of exploratory weirdness, “Drumz,” and “Space.”
 

From left: Jayotis Washington, Rip Rense, Jimmy Hayes, Jerry Lawson, Joe Russell, Vince Welnick, Raymond Sanders.                                                                                               Photo: Marina Malikoff

  
         “The Persuasions wanted a do-over, and here it is,” said McNally. “New tracks, changed tracks, an altogether new version of one of the more remarkable musical encounters of the recent past –- the inspired masters of blues/gospel-based a cappella singing address the music of the Grateful Dead.”

            With Lawson acting as consultant on the project, and a crowning touch provided by old Persuasions fan Tom Waits, who christened it Persuasions of the Dead.

            “These guys are deep-sea fishermen,” Waits once famously said of The Persuasions. “I’m just a fisherman in a boat.”

            And the boat carrying this deep-sea album is ZOHO Music.

New guest artists invited to the project: Jackie LaBranch and Gloria Jones, longtime back-up singers for the Jerry Garcia Band, Bob Weir & Ratdog lead guitarist Mark Karan, saxophonist James King, erhu virtuoso Dongming Qiao, vocal trumpeter Alyn Kelley, and an old friend of The Persuasions and the Grateful Dead: the great Country Joe McDonald.

           “Having been a fan of The Persuasions since my student days in Germany in the 1970s, I was aware of their initial tribute record to the Grateful Dead for a long time,” said ZOHO head Jochen Becker.

            “Imagine my surprise therefore when Persuasions of the Dead landed on my desk a couple of months ago. I was hooked by the sheer musical inventiveness of the Persuasions’ renewed musical journey through the Grateful Dead songbook. You’ve got to admire the sheer audacity and musical fearlessness of both The Persuasions and the producer Rip Rense to create this project. It is not only visionary in its successful combination of Dead’s and the Persuasions’ musical cultures, but it is also downright fun to listen to!”

 A lot of that fun comes from non-Persuasions. While the album is largely a cappella, The Pers, as they are known to fans, are joined by a host of wonderful soloists, many with strong links to the Grateful Dead. For Persuasions of the Dead, Rense invited Jackie LaBranch and Gloria Jones, longtime back-up singers for the Jerry Garcia Band (now on seven tracks), Bob Weir & Ratdog lead guitarist Mark Karan, saxophonist James King, erhu virtuoso Dongming Qiao, vocal trumpeter Alyn Kelley, and an old friend of The Persuasions and the Grateful Dead: the great Country Joe McDonald.
     
           They join the wonderful guest artists whose spontaneous collaborations marked the original 1999 sessions: the late Grateful Dead keyboardist Vince Welnick, old Garcia musical cronies Eric Thompson (mandolin), Pete Grant (guitar), Grammy-Award-winning bluegrass musician Peter Rowan (vocal), and the now-defunct Berkeley female vocal group, Mary Schmary.
                  

 “It’s lovely to have the bright, beautiful voices of Jackie and Gloria on seven tracks here, and it’s particularly great to have Country Joe on two,” said Rense. “He’s sort of a musical cousin of The Persuasions and the Dead, as he had The Persuasions on the song, "Doo Wop-Oh," from his 1979 album, Leisure Suite. Then The Persuasions recorded Joe’s kids’ song, ‘I’m So Glad (I’ve Got Skin)’ on their children’s album, On The Good Ship Lollipop. You factor in Joe’s longtime friendship with Garcia, who played on his Superstitious Blues album, and the one or two songs he co-wrote with Garcia’s songwriting partner, Hunter, and it was a familial fit. As was the case with Peter Rowan, Eric Thompson, Pete Grant."

 Aside from “Drumz” and “Space,” The Persuasions recorded two brand new songs for the project, “Don’t Ease Me In” (an old blues number favored by the Dead), and the poignant Hunter-Garcia gem, “Stella Blue.” This was no easy trick, as lead singer Lawson had quit The Persuasions in 2002. That’s correct, to realize this project, Lawson graciously agreed to reunite with his old colleagues for “Stella.” This recording marks the very last time the original Persuasions sang together on record.

           There is another remarkable story to this. . .remarkable story. While driving through Santa Monica one night, Rense heard the Chinese stringed instrument, erhu, coming through his car window. He stopped and found Dongming Qiao, a one-time childhood prodigy whose career was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. Qiao spoke no English, and after much translation and cajoling, this shy, self-effacing man composed and played the solo you hear on “Stella Blue.”

With Lawson’s superb adaptation of Hunter-Garcia’s timeless songs, the many textures and surprises offered by the many guest artists, and the deep, reverberating harmonies of these legendary singers, Persuasions of the Dead transcends the “tribute album” genre.

Two other songs discarded during the original sessions were rescued and re-worked for the album: “New Speedway Boogie,” and “Greatest Story Ever Told,” and many others were substantially rearranged. In the end, the album is certainly the most ambitious Persuasions album ever made. But it is something more than that. With Lawson’s superb adaptation of Hunter-Garcia’s timeless songs, the many textures and surprises offered by the many guest artists, and the deep, reverberating harmonies of these legendary singers, Persuasions of the Dead transcends the “tribute album” genre.

It’s really the greatest Grateful Dead album the Grateful Dead never made.

And it could get no higher compliment than this one, graciously offered by Garcia’s longtime partner, Hunter himself:

            “Ever so much better! In fact, enchanting.”

                            
                             The fabulous Persuasions: Russell, Lawson, Hayes, Washington,
                                    Sanders.                                                             photo by J.C. Juanis

                                                          

                                                       © 2011 Rensart Productions. All rights reserved.
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